BEAR ATTACKS WOMAN RUNNING MARATHON IN NEW MEXICO
Wildlife officials say a bear attacked a woman running a marathon in a national preserve in northern New Mexico. The woman suffered several bites and scratches and had injuries to her head, neck and upper body that weren’t life-threatening.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish says the woman was racing when a female black bear confronted her in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Officers say the victim surprised the bear after her cub had run up a nearby tree. Other joggers helped her until emergency crews arrived. She was airlifted to an Albuquerque hospital.
Game and Fish and the National Park Service are warning people to stay away from the area. Officials are trying to find the bear to test it for rabies.
(AP)
COlORADO-BASED COMPANY RElEASES WINE FOR CATS
A Colorado company is looking to help cat owners enjoy the experience of sharing a glass of wine with their pets. The non-alcoholic, beet-based cat wine was developed specifically for cats by Denver-based Apollo Peak.
Cats can enjoy the company’s products in two varieties, including the red Pinot Meow and white Moscato.
“All of our cat wine products have a proprietary blend that includes all-natural organically grown catnip, fresh beets and natural preservatives to help hold the taste and colour,” the company says on its website. “We believe in natural ingredients for our particularly classy feline friends.”
While the lack of alcohol ensures that cats won’t get drunk from drinking Apollo Peak’s wine, the products do contain organic catnip, which can produce a kind of drunken reaction.
“Depending on how much they drink — the effects will vary,” the company says. When cats smell catnip, they tend to get funny, move around and play a lot. The exact opposite occurs when they ingest catnip. They normally will become more “mellowed” out when they drink the wine, so it might actually help for restless nights.
(UPI)
ENGlISH FARMER RACES PIGS TO PREDICT EU REFERENDUM VOTE
Forget the opinion polls and betting odds, one English farmer has his own way of predicting the outcome of Britain’s looming referendum on whether to stay in the European Union or leave — racing his miniature pigs.
The pigs of Pennywell Farm in Devon successfully predicted the outcome of Britain’s national election last year and are again fighting it out on the track in some political racing that rival the “Remain” and “leave” sides’ own campaign battles.
PM David Cameron is leading the “In” campaign and former london Mayor Boris Johnson, also from the ruling Conservative Party, is urging Britons to vote “Out” in the June 23 referendum. As the latest polls show growing momentum for the “leave” camp, the farm in southwest England is putting four pigs to the test each afternoon on a 137-m-long course, with both sides represented.
Racing for the “Remain” camp are ‘David Hameron’ and ‘George Hogsborne’, a play on the name of Finance Minister George Osborne. For the “leave” camp the racers are ‘Boar-is Johnson’ and ‘Iain Duncan Sniff’, a reference to leading Eurosceptic and Conservative ex-Cabinet Minister Iain Duncan Smith.
(Reuters)
‘VIRGIN BURSARIES’ SCHEME RUlED UNCONSTITUTIONAl
A controversial scheme offering university scholarships to young South African women who remain virgins is unconstitutional, the Commission for Gender Equality ruled recently.
The ‘maiden’s bursaries’ offered by a local Mayor sparked a nationwide debate in January, with critics slamming the scheme’s emphasis on virginity as outdated while traditionalists said it would help preserve African culture.
The gender commission said the programme discriminated against women because male students were not subjected to the same tests. “Any funding by an organ of state based on a woman’s sexuality perpetuates patriarchy and inequality in South Africa,” it said in a statement.
“It is not the cultural practice that is the problem here; it is the allocation of state funds on the basis of girls’ sexuality that violates the constitutional protection to equality, dignity and privacy,” said Sanja Bornman, an attorney with lawyers for Human Rights.
Recipients of the scholarships were required to undergo virginity testing each time they returned home for holidays.
(Reuters)
PENTAGON HONOURS HACKERS FOR EXPOSING ITS ONlINE FlAWS
An 18-year-old high school graduate was one of two people singled out by the Pentagon for hacking into its website and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he was thankful to them.
Carter met the teen, David Dworken, and another hacker, Craig Arendt, the two who identified the highest number of potential vulnerabilities in several Defense Department websites, including its main one, www.defense.gov.
The hackers were participating in the Pentagon’s first “bug bounty,” where it asked those with hacking capabilities to investigate five public websites and identify potential lapses in security where a nefarious hacker could do damage.
(UPI)